How to Protect your Accounts Online?
Alright, this doesn’t have anything to do with productivity or personal development (or maybe it does!).
Seriously, having any of your accounts hacked is a nightmare especially if it contains your bank information. I had my email account hacked once (many months ago) and that was a total pain! Wasted a ton of my time in backing up, getting it back, fixing all the mess.
Anyhow, if you have weak passwords, here are some tips to help you protect your accounts:
1. Use pages with “https security” whenever giving out your credit card number or any banking things.
Here’s an example: If you click on to http://www.managemytimenow.com/timeisnow.php and click on any of the order buttons (you don’t have to buy), check the address of the page you’re taken to. It will start with “https” instead of http.
“HTTPS” is a secure form of http.
2. Use strong passwords
Did you know there are softwares out there that will check every single letter/word from the dictionary and try to guess your password? They are quite powerful! And that’s why your email password or bank account password needs to be extremely strong!!
Here are a few tips for that:
1. Use special characters like ! @ $ * & in your passwords.
2. Use capital letters.
3. Use numbers.
4. Use normal letters.
5. Most importantly, make your passwords a combination of all 4 of them!
6. Never give away your passwords (duh!) but I know sometimes you do have to give it to someone or whatever. Just use a dummy password then if possible but remember to change it right away!
7. Use different passwords for different things. Having the same password for your bank information and your favorite forum makes no sense!
8. Change passwords frequently (every 90-180 days).
Whatever you do, take care of your passwords. Losing them or getting any account hacked is a pain and costs you tons of time, money and stress!